DEEP CUTTING ABILITY

Perhaps the next most important requirement of a short heel cock is that he drive his blows deep. This can be accomplished with a round house swing, but far better is it to have the cock drive them to the socket with a quick snap. You don't have to wind up to drive a 1 1/4 inch heerto the socket. A quick snap by a cock in good balance and with his weight behind his blow witl do the job just as well or better. In addition, the snap of the blow seems to have a paralyzing effect in itself. Furthermore, a bird which snaps single stroke blows is less liable to land off balance where he is unable to protect himself. A bird which snaps his blows, frequently, in fact usually. pulls his own heels without any trace of hanging, no matter where they land or how deep they penetrate. Many times people thinka bird with such a striking style is not cutting at all, particularly if the blows are landing in the body, and can't understand "wot hoppened" when a minute or two later the opponent is unable to leave his score.  

But the blows must be driven deep. no matter how delivered. Shallow cutting is no good, neither is pushing or hooking. We have already seen how shuffling can be a handicap In instead of an asset. Countless times all short heel men have seen a cock which has been on the receiving end of a hundred shallow blows, perhaps he is even blinded and partially coupled, come up with a single pile driving shot which kills

his opponent deader than a maggot. To the unitiated the top bird looked like 100 to 20 to win, but you never see such odds in short heels. If the top bird is striking shallow, and the cut up bird has shown the capacity to drive a deep one, the odds are never greater than 100 to 80 and probably not even that.

Now all this does not mean that fast, relatively shallow cutting, multiple stroke birds cannot win in short heels. In fact there are more ways and styles to win a cock fight than there are to skin a cat. I've seen fowl with the above mentioned style win in short heels, and they looked like a million dollars doing it. Swarmed all over their opponents and never gave them a chance. Made your mouth water to own one. But these were superlative birds in superlative condition and at the peak of the form. Not one cocker in many thousands can ever possess such birds or attain such condition. Countless other families of fowl with similar fighting style, but of lesser ability and only average condition, flood the short heel pits, but normally end up among the also rans. In this discussion of short heel fighting style we must consider primarily the quality of chickens and the quality of condition attainable by the average cocker. It should also be noted that even these outstanding cocks did not win this particular derby. In fact they ended up in a many way (7 or 9, as I recall it) for third position, all of which indicates that even superlative fowl in phenomenal condition cannot completefy make amends for a deficiency in deep cutting when competing in I t/' inch heels.

Many long heel cockers have the impression that body cutting is inef. fective in short heels. This is not true. On the contrary, many short heel cockers who possess fowl which drive their heels deep prefer their birds to strike at the body, particularly at the start of battle. The vital organs in a cock's body lungs, heart, liver, gizzard do not lie so far beneath the surface that they cannot be reached with 1 1/4 inch heels which are  really driven home. A short straight heel usually can be pulled or shuf• fled into that area but it certainty can be driven there by a cock having the proper stroke. Body cutting has the further advantage of substantially reducing the adversary's ability to punish you. "Always direct your first shot to the stomach" the old Western gunfighters used to say, "it spoils the other fellow's aim." It is the same way with hard driven short heels to a cock's body. Not only is mortal damage being done, but the opposing cock's ability to hurt you is being substantially reduced.

Shots to the head or neck, unless they strike a principal nerve or vital organ, do not have this same effect. In fact they frequently cause the  opposing cock to strike more viciously and accurately than before. But hard blows to the ''bread basket" slow him down then and there, and he stays slowed down. Furthermore, there is always the chance that a body blow so delivered will strike a vital organ. There are just as many one shot kills resulting from body blows in IV' heels as there are from shots to the head or neck. So never discount the effectiveness of body cutting in short straight heels if the blows are driven deep as they should be.

Before leaving the subject of deep cutting, mention should be made of the hooking or "pulling in" type of stroke. This technique of stroking is

very deadly in long heels with high points and curved blades, but in short straight heels.such manner of striking is at a great disadvantage. Such heels instead of working in deep merely slide off into thin air or scratch a little bit without doing any mortal damage. In other words, to wind up this particular point, there is no substitute for deep cutting with a hard driven straight blow when competing in 1 1/4 inch regulation F.S 

FIGHTING STYLE

The first prerequisite of a short heel cock is that he must point his heels, that is, he must strike so that the blow lands on the point of the heel rather than on the side or curve of the blade. This statement would appear to be self evident – "elementary, my dear Watson," as Sherlock Holmes would say, but it is astonishing how few cocks possess this capacity. If birds pointed their heels every fly, no battle would last very tong no matter what the length of gaff. Some fowl point their heels well at the beginning of the battle, but can't cut butter when tired or injured. Others are just the opposite. They apparently do but little damage in the opening wild flurries, But when they settle down, even though injured, they cut every fly. Ability or inability to finish a down cock is largely a matter of heel pointing. 

The manner of affixing or setting the heels has something to do with a cock's ability to deliver his blow so that it lands on the point of the blade. Likewise the style of gaff: tow points or high points, the side set wide or slight. Different birds require different settings and different styles of gaffs for best results.

As a general thing, thick full breasted birdsfequire a wider side set than thin breasted slab sided birds. Perhaps an example or two will illustrate the point better than words. A few years ago a friend who had been extremely successful in the long heel major circuits sent me a dozen of his best stags to try in short heels. They were extremely round, full breasted birds. I heeled them the same as I did my own fowl which were on the narrow side, but which cut extremely well when heeled very  sharp, that is, the point being set well ahead of the leader in the cock's leg. My friend's broad breasted birds could not cut anything, and after trying half a dozen I gave up on them. At the end of the season I was cleaning out odds and ends via the pit route, which can be very educational at times, and decided, as an experiment. to try heeling my friend's birds very wide, that is, the the point way back on the hock joint. The result was electrifying. Some of them knocked off two and three opponents without ever leaving the pit.

Another example: A few years ago I added some new blood to my fowl which substantially increased the width and fullness of their breasts. The infusion was a marked success, and the pit record of the cross quite remarkble. But I noticed that if the birds did not kill in the first pitting or two that I had an awful time in the drag pit despite the fact that the opponent was down and out and my cock was stroking hard and deliberately. Finally after dropping two such fights in the drag pit which  took me out of first place in a big derby, I came to my senses: the new cross stroked differently from my old narrow fowl, and required a wider heel setting, especially after they became tired and exhausted.

Conformation alone witl not determine how to set your heels most ef fectively, but if your fowl are not cutting, that is, not striking with the point, try setting the gaffs differently, or experiment with different curve of blade or height of point. Of course if a bird strikes with his hocks or the bottom of his feet, nothing wilt help, but sometimes the manner of setting can make a difference, which cost me a lot of money to learn.

Before leaving the subject of heel pointing, or having the blow land on the point of the gaff, let's make a brief comparison between long and short heels in this respect. Of course striking with the point of the gaff is important no matter what type or length of heel is in use. But with long heels with their high points and curved blades, a cock that wades in and flails away is almost certain to get the point in somewhere, at which time he pulls and shuffles away and the gaff goes in deeper and deeper. But with short straight regulation heels most of this pulling and shuffling does not mean a thing, for the blade instead of going deeper into the opponent's body is, in atl probability, just fanning the air or scratching the feathers.

Several years ago the late Knotty Harris, a well known chicken fighter from Memphis, was attending a short heel tournament in New York state where I was competing. Now, no one ever accused Knotty of being stupid so far as chicken fighting or gambting was concerned. He knew more and saw more than most. But this was his first experience with short heels. Time after time a bird would pull what appeared to Knotty to be a devastating shuffle. whereupon he would burst into full cry with  the odds. Just as quickly they were covered. The last I saw of Knotty he was arranging a loan from Solly O'Connell ' 'to get train fare home.

Knotty's trouble was that he did not realize the tremendous difference in effectiveness between the various blows when delivered in short heels instead of long.

Frank Shy